Hey you know teaching is like a closed union shop, you have to have a relative or something like an education degree to get in. In NJ the alternate route to teaching is not! if you did not go the ed degree route your chances of getting a job in a public school is slim to none.

Come on down to Tennessee and teach, my friends! Now, you'll be "unionized" if you teach in the large Metro systems, but in the rural systems we have less than 50% participation in the unions. Of course, unlike our compatriots in the heavily unionized North, we pay 20/80 on our healthcare and make half the salary (try $40K instead of the mid-80's.) Still sound appealing - then read on! One point you need to remember is that many of your "customers" are not interested in your lesson and will do everything in their (considerable) "rights" to disrupt your classroom. You, however, usually can only fill out reams of paperwork on them in the hopes that weeks down the road they'll get called in for a consultation. It's hard to really get mad at 'em, though, because sometimes it's tough being a teen with parents on meth and your own problems to tend to... but hey, you may get a better demographic so don't let that hold you back! After you figure out how, you'll find the classrooms can be managed, but I didn't want you to think it was as simple as standing at a board lecturing to throngs of admiring students in rapt attention, lol! No Master's needed, just make the requisite scores on the Praxis (Natl. Teacher Exam). In fact, you don't have to have a degree in Education, you can had a BS in Mathematics like I do and still teach. So come on down to Tennessee and teach, but don't lump me and many of my coworkers in with that crew in Wisconsin. We'll probably take it poorly. ps. I personally am hoping for the day with the current educational system collapses under it's own weight. Maybe then we can create a system that produces engineers, tradesmen, and scientists - "doers' and "makers"... instead of what we have now - students for life that don't have the know-how to change a flat tire much less rebuild a lawnmower engine or fix a leaky pipe.

Steve: I used to teach high school math. Yes, the system is going to collapse. Algebra I credit is based on using an Algebra textbook, and 180 days of 50 minutes a day. It is not necessarily about learning the material, which it should be. When my son was on the high school tennis team, he noticed that on days of tennis meets, when he missed his physics class and had to read the book, he understood the material better than when he was in class for the lecture. Do you know know teachers spell change?

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